We are enjoying some fantastic weather at the moment on our day tours from Christchurch to Arthur's Pass and now have the first of the alpine flowers in bloom! Springtime in New Zealand is usually pretty unpredictable but this past week we have had some summer like temperatures on our guided walk in Arthurs Pass. Whenever the temperature gets near 20 (degrees Celcius) the locals start complaining about the heat wave, this usually only happens for a short time in January but we have had a couple of days this past week already like this. Our day tour includes afternoon tea and at this time of year all our walkers are usually warming up with a hot chocolate after the walk but this week it has been cold beers. (Not for me of course!)

One of the highlights of walking in the New Zealand high country is the alpine flowers and Arthurs Pass is well known as a great spot for flowers, with lots of people making the day trip from Christchurch to see them.

The Mount Cook Lilly (incorrectly named, it's actually a buttercup) is usually the first of the alpine plants to flower and in the last week or so we have seen these out up the Bealey valley on our TranzAlpine train and Arthurs Pass Guided walk one day tours from Christchurch.

At this time of year there is still quite a bit of snow around, even close to the walking track, so we can get some great photos with snowy mountains and flowers in full bloom. All these photos were taken this week on our day tours from Christchurch. Just so I can't be accused of only showing photos of sunny days, here is an image from a couple of weeks ago where everyone had a great time in the pouring rain.